GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Despite smoke in the air throughout West Michigan on Tuesday, it was as busy as you’d expect on a summer day in Grand Haven.
Hazel Cherney likes to spend time in Grand Haven. She and her friend come from Spring Lake to hang out downtown in the summer.
Today, they noticed something different.
“It like, kind of gives you shortness of breath a little," says Cherney. "Like, it’s just smoke and not really clean air.”
Others noticed a taste in the air.
"It smelled like a little off, you know?” says Tyrell Winters, a student and Grand Haven High School who spent the day downtown with his friends.
Out on the water, Hendrik Van Holsbeeck has been kite surfing for almost a decade, but in that time, he hasn’t experienced anything like this before.
"Today it’s really smoky, something we’re not used to," he says. "Usually it’s fog, not smoke.”
Van Holsbeeck says he didn’t have any trouble breathing, and only noticed the smoke visibly, feeling safe enough to hit the waves.
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